Degrees Granted and Course Enrollments by Field of Study. Second in a Series about the Stanford Curriculum Study.

Boli, John; And Others

As part of the Stanford Curriculum Study, information is provided on the university's approach to monitoring undergraduate education through research into student academic records. Trends in bachelor's degrees granted in the various departments from 1960-1961 to 1981-1982 at Stanford are charted and compared to national trends. Course enrollments are also examined, along with policy implications of the results. Data were obtained for the following six school divisions: School of Earth Sciences, the School of Engineering, and four divisions within the School of Humanities and Sciences--humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and interdepartmental programs. Looking at the 7 years covered by the Curriculum Study (after 1975), significant declines for numbers of bachelor's degrees granted were found in three school divisions (humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences), and large increases in the other divisions (interdepartmental programs, engineering, and earth sciences). Although the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences experienced a decrease in graduates in recent years, none of these divisions suffered losses in their overall course enrollments. Enrollments in the interdepartmental programs and engineering departments increased. (SW)